Elton John Vermont Concert Review

Thankfully, the rain held off during a fantastic Elton John concert at the Essex Junction fairgrounds on July 21. 2008. The concert started off with an old classic, Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding and continued on at full steam for the rest of the night. For a guy in his sixties, you wouldn’t know it. Elton John still has a few acrobatic tricks left and he didn’t hesitate to use them. The music itself was fantastic and his voice only began to show signs of wearing out during the beginning of the finale. His voice was a bit hoarse on his last DVD, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case during this performance.

I managed to sneak one of those new Flip mini camcorders into the show. They were one of the first tiny camcorders but the video quality was so-so (yet pretty good back in those days). For that reason, the video resolution and recording time isn’t all that great. I guess I was just lucky to get any video…period.

Near the end of the concert, I was down front shooting some video near the stage. All of the sudden, all hell broke loose and the crowd rushed to the front of the stage. A lone security guard tried to restrain people but he was soon overwhelmed by the crowd. I was actually pushed to the front of the stage by the crowd but unfortunately, my video camera battery died just as I was 6 feet away from Elton John, preparing for some close-up shots. Close enough to grab the legs of his piano stool, my damn Flip mini cam died. Damn, if I had only had an iPhone!

After a few minutes, I struggled back through the crowd to my seat. Better to leave the space for the number of kids scrambling to get to the stage for autographs. I was surprised to see Elton John take several minutes to autograph everyone’s items just before the finale and at the end of the show. Most artists are pretty aloof and don’t bother to interact with the audience. To see a legendary performer such as Elton John take the time to be so gracious with his fans was the icing on the cake after one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended.
Sir Elton John indeed!

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